Gastropod Anatomy

A snails circulation basically is open. The snail can withdraw its body completely into the shell when it is resting or protecting itself from a predator.

Gastropod Internal Anatomy Worksheet

A snail cannot leave its shell any more easily than humans can leave their fingernails.

Gastropod anatomy. That means that snails may have some important blood vessels such as the pulmonary vein leading from the lung to the heart and the main artery or aorta but the blood circulates freely between the organs. Some are herbivores feeding on algae or plant material. This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater from freshwater and from the land.

Internally the mantle contains the visceral mass. Gastropods are characterised by the possession of a single often coiled shell although this is lost in some slug groups and a body that has undergone torsion so that the pallial cavity faces forwards. Externally it produces and secretes calcium carbonate and lime which hardens into a protective shell in many gastropod species.

The shells of some species are used as ornaments or in making jewelry. Land snails have a coiled shell to which their body is attached by a strong muscle. Some gastropods are scavengers feeding on dead plant or animal matter.

The shell stays with the snail for its life. They have a well developed head that bears eyes and a pair of tentacles cephalic tentacles and a muscular foot used for creeping in most species while in some it is modified for swimming or burrowing. In shelled gastropods its the part of the body that always remains inside the shell.

General anatomy of a gastropod in a typical shelled gastropod such as the snail the soft body parts include those that normally extend outside the shell the head and foot and those that remain inside the mantle and visceral mass. The gastropods ˈ ɡ æ s t r oʊ p ɒ d z more commonly known as snails and slugs belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum mollusca called gastropoda. And a few species are external or internal parasites of other invertebrates.

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